In our continuously evolving world, change is the only thing that is constant. Being receptive to change is not a new idea, and we all have been hearing it for a long time. Therefore, qualities such as engaging oneself in a constant and continuous learning and keeping oneself more versatile are valued a lot these days.
In my long career, I performed a wide range of jobs right from teaching to content writing to digital marking to product design, making a smooth transition from one job to another. I spent numerous hours gaining new knowledge and acquiring new skills. And all through my learning I hardly had a mentor, and hence, I’m to a great extent, self-learned.
Around six months ago, when I got an opportunity to contribute as a product designer, I readily accepted the challenge. I did not know even the basics of product design. I was just supplied with some learning materials and a senior product designer gave me a short briefing where he emphasized on user centered design (UCD). As the learning materials and briefing were not enough, I started exploring more resources to acquire the knowledge and skills required for product design.
In business parlance being customer-centric and user-centric are the buzzwords. Because businesses are dependent on their customers, especially the final users. Though the engineers who build products are known for their logical intelligence and sophisticated cognition, the people who use their products may be ordinary people who need simple, lucid, and intuitive interface to use or interact with those products. This is where a designer’s role comes into picture.
Normally a designer forms an important part of any agile team that has some developers and led by a Product Manager (PM).
A product designer or a UX designer has to carryout user research, before embarking on creating a prototype. The initial model, which is termed as a low-fidelity prototype, undergoes many iterations, slowly evolving into a high-fidelity prototype that is ready to be used.
Knowledge & skills a product designer needs:
A product designer or a UX designer (Though both these terms are mostly used interchangeably, there are some differences) needs to acquire a host of skills to carry out his tasks successfully.
Communication Skills: A product designer needs good communicative competence both oral and written. Because he/she needs to conduct user interviews as part of user research that requires framing appropriate questions and eliciting responses.
Product Knowledge: A product designer must have a thorough understanding of the product that is being designed, the purpose it is going to serve, and the final users of the product.
Wireframing skills: An aspiring product designer needs to acquire good wireframing skills. There are some tools such as Adobe XD and Figma that are used to prepare wireframes. One needs to spend many hours to acquire the skill of using them with ease. The YouTube videos made available by enthusiastic designers are a valuable resource for the new designers to learn wireframing.
Design Psychology: A product designer needs to gain a good amount of knowledge on user psychology. Designers who familiarize themselves with user psychology come up with user-centered designs that are easy to use. Though there are many books and online resources available on product design, some books and resources stand out. Here are some books that enable you to acquire insights into user-centered design.
Universal Principles of Design: William Lidwell
Don’t Make Me Think: Krug Steve
The Design of Everyday Things: Don Norman
Familiarizing oneself with Gestalt Psychology, which is widely perceived to be the basis of digital product design, is essential for every product designer.
Design language: Many organizations, especially large commercial organizations, devise their own design systems. They prescribe the design components that are to be used while designing their digital applications/tools. These design systems, which contain reusable design components, come in the form of a UI core. These brand-compliant design systems not only enable the organizations to maintain a distinct brand identity and consistency but also ensure better accessibility.
WCAG Compliance: While designing a web page or a digital application a designer must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines are intended to provide the users with equitable access to all web content irrespective of their abilities. The web content that we design should enable the people who have special needs — whether they suffer from visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairments — to access the online resources with equal ease. Therefore, a designer needs to take care of many things such as ensuring sufficient color contrast and incorporating proper alt tags for all the images.
Teamwork: Product designing is a teamwork. It requires frequent brainstorming sessions, where the members of a design team pool their heads together to come up with better designs and solutions. Therefore, making progress in a concerted manner with a shared vision is vital to the success of a product design team.
With good efforts and continuous practice, one can acquire the skills and knowledge needed to be a product designer. As product designers are in great demand, it is certainly a lucrative career opportunity for the creative people who master user psychology.
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